淨土往生傳 1.13

1.13

釋僧叡。魏之館陶人也。年十八。始事僧賢為弟子。巾舃而外學與時競。至二十。博總佛經。猶通儒籍。甞聽僧朗講放光經。屢有機難。朗謂賢曰。叡也識出人表。比格難吾累思不能通。可謂賢賢弟子耳。叡以身居學地。未能均慧習定。加又禪定之奧昧諸階漸。且曰經法雖少足識因果。禪法未傳。措心無地。羅什後至關中。出禪要三卷。叡首得之。日夜修習。遂精五門。善入六靜。偽司徒姚嵩。高其懿行頗前席之。秦主姚興。問嵩曰。叡公何如。嵩曰。實鄴衛之松柏爾。及興見之。盛加賞悅。反謂嵩曰。叡公乃四海之標領。何獨鄴衛松柏乎。於是美聲大布。遠近歸德。什師所翻經論。叡並參正。後出成實論。令叡講之。什顧叡曰。此論七處文。破毘曇在言小隱。若能不問而解真為英邁。至叡啟發。果不諮什。什歎曰。吾以傳譯與子。相值蓋無恨矣。後著大智論十二門論中論等序。并著大小品法華維摩思益經序。皆傳於世。初叡善攝威儀。弘贊經法。常迴諸善願生安養故。雖坐臥進止。罕曾背西。後時無病集僧告曰。生平所存願在安養。如叡所見。固當得生。或其身口意業。未至無犯。願施大慈。永為法朋。因款諸僧。坐而死焉。叡死之日。寺僧咸見五色煙霧出叡之房。盤旋然漸而西去之。

Shi Sengrui was a native of Guantao in Wei. At the age of eighteen, he first served Sengxian as a disciple; outside of washing the robes and sandals, his learning vied with time. By the age of twenty, he had comprehensively mastered Buddhist scriptures and was also versed in Confucian texts. Once, when listening to Senglang lecturing on the Fangguang jing (Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā), he repeatedly raised subtle difficulties. Lang said to Xian, “Rui's discernment surpasses ordinary men. The difficulties he recently posed remained unresolved even after my repeated contemplation. He may truly be called a worthy disciple of a worthy master!” Rui, regarding himself as abiding in the stage of learning, had not yet been able to balance wisdom with the practice of samādhi; moreover, the subtleties of dhyāna samādhi were obscure in their stages. He said, “Although the texts of the sūtras are scarce, they suffice to understand cause and effect; yet because the methods of dhyāna have not been transmitted, there is nowhere to place one's mind.” When Kumārajīva later arrived in Guanzhong and translated the three-fascicle Chan yao (Essentials of Dhyāna), Rui was the first to obtain it. Day and night he cultivated and practiced it, eventually mastering the five methods and entering the six states of tranquility with skill. Yao Song, the illegitimate Minister of Works, held his admirable conduct in high esteem and treated him with great deference. The Qin ruler Yao Xing asked Song, “What manner of man is Master Rui?” Song replied, “He is truly a pine and cypress of Ye and Wei.” When Xing met him, he praised and took immense delight in him, saying in turn to Song, “Master Rui is an exemplar of the four seas; why merely a pine and cypress of Ye and Wei?” Thereupon his fair renown spread widely, and both near and far turned to his virtue. Rui assisted in correcting all the sūtras and treatises translated by Master Kumārajīva. Later, when the Chengshi lun (Tattvasiddhi-śāstra) was translated, Kumārajīva had Rui lecture on it. Kumārajīva looked at Rui and said, “In seven places in this treatise, the text refutes the Abhidharma, but the wording is somewhat obscure. If you can understand it without asking, you are truly preeminent.” When Rui expounded it, he indeed did not consult Kumārajīva. Kumārajīva sighed with praise: “In transmitting and translating texts, that I have met with you leaves me without any regrets!” Later, Rui composed prefaces to the Da zhi lun (Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa), the Shi'ermen lun (Dvādaśamukha-śāstra), the Zhong lun (Mūlamadhyamakakārikā), and other works, as well as prefaces to the Larger and Smaller Prajñāpāramitā, the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa, and the Viśeṣacintibrahmaparipṛcchā sūtras, all of which circulated in the world. Originally, Rui was disciplined in deportment and broadly propagated the scriptural teachings; he constantly dedicated all good deeds with the vow to be reborn in Anyang, so that whether sitting, lying, stepping, or halting, he seldom turned his back to the west. Later, without illness, he assembled the monks and announced, “My lifelong aspiration has resided in Anyang. As I see it, I will certainly attain rebirth there. Yet if my karmas of body, speech, and mind have not reached absolute faultlessness, I pray that you will bestow great compassion and forever be my Dharma friends.” Having thus opened his heart to the monks, he passed away while seated. On the day of Rui's passing, the monastery monks all saw five-colored smoke and vapor emerge from Rui's room, swirling and gradually drifting toward the west.